They finally arrived, two days later. The Blood-Wind Territories. It was a scar on the world. The
sky was a sickly, reddish-brown. The very air was thick with the smell of old blood, rust, and
uncontrolled, chaotic Qi. The "gate" was just a gap in a hundred-foot wall of black, fused rock,
the remnant of some ancient, cataclysmic war. Inside was a ruin-city, a sprawling, lawless mess
of broken towers and makeshift shanties. They were scarred, their robes in tatters. They looked
like just another pair of desperate refugees. Which is exactly what the "welcoming committee"
saw.
A gang of eight, burly men, their faces covered in tattoos, stepped out, blocking their path. They
were all cultivators, but... different. Their Qi was ragged, violent, and unstable. The leader, a
one-eyed man with a massive, rust-flecked cleaver, leered at Lin Yue. "Well, well. Look what the
storm blew in. Hand over the girl and all your valuables, boy. We'll even let you join the Skulls.
As... bait."
Kael and Lin Yue didn't look at each other. They didn't need to. "You take the four on the left,"
Kael said, his voice flat. "No," Lin Yue replied, her voice pure ice. "I'll take the seven on the right.
You can have the leader." The leader's face went from a leer to confusion. "What...?"
They moved. Kael: "[KNIGHT'S CHARGE]!" Lin Yue: [Azure-Veil Step]! Kael, a bronze blur,
slammed his [Bulwark] shield directly into the leader's chest, shattering his ribs and sending him flying. Lin Yue became a blur of blue. She didn't use grand techniques. She just used her flute,
coated in a thin layer of her [Thousand-Petal Ice], as a melee weapon. Tap. Tap. Tap. She
moved through the remaining seven men like a ghost. Each tap—to a throat, a temple, a
heart—left a single, black-ice lotus. Seven men fell, their bodies frozen before they hit the
ground. The entire "fight" took less than five seconds.
K..."Kael," Lin Yue said, breathing lightly, her combat-trance fading. He was standing over the
whimpering, terrified leader, his simple, warped sword at the man's throat. The entire street,
which had been full of onlookers, was now deathly silent. "Where," Kael asked, his voice a cold,
dead monotone, "is the nearest, safest inn? The one... no one will bother us in." The man,
choking on his own blood and terror, pointed a trembling finger. "The... the 'Broken Mug'...
best... best lock... in the city... I... I..." "Thank you," Kael said. He sheathed his sword. "You can
live. Tell everyone... we just want to be left alone." He turned, walked to Lin Yue, and gently took
her hand. "Come on. Let's get a room." They walked into the Blood-Wind Territories, leaving a
trail of frozen corpses and a new, terrifying legend behind them.